Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes

A few weeks ago, we shared our Essential Pancake Recipe? It’s one of our favorite recipes, a serious go-to for weekends. We use it all the time as a base for other pancake recipes.

Here, we use our essential pancake recipe as a base then and add pumpkin puree, spices and top with the most delicious pecan syrup. These are a must-make.

You May Also Like: While these pancakes are a little lighter, we’ve also shared pumpkin pancakes before – Take a look at our Easy Homemade Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe. They are not too sweet and have a hint of spice.

How to Make The Fluffiest Pumpkin Pancakes

These are quite simple to make – they’ve become a favorite in our home.

We like to use Gold Medal all-purpose flour, here. We love using it for pancakes.

Did you know protein levels vary by flour brand? Protein content can affect tenderness of baked goods or in this case, pancakes. Since Gold Medal all-purpose flour has less protein, the flour is a little softer and makes tender, light and fluffy pancakes. (Pancakes made with other brands of all-purpose flour will still be delicious, we just love using Gold Medal)

Here’s another trick. Do everything you can to not over-mix the batter.

Over-mixing batter is a common pancake mistake — it makes pancakes heavy and flat. To prevent this, mix dry and wet ingredients separately at first then combine just before cooking. We use milk, melted butter an egg and vanilla extract.

For a slightly different spin, take a look at My Baking Addiction’s pumpkin pancakes recipe — it uses buttermilk instead of milk.

Once you’re ready to cook your pancakes, combine the two mixes — we use a fork.

Stir until you no longer see large streaks of flour. Then stir in a whole cup of pumpkin puree until only small clumps of flour remain.

The batter will be pretty thick — that’s okay, you can just spread the batter in the pan to make a circle. If you think the batter is too thick, just add a dash of milk to thin it out a little. No worries!

How to Make Butter Pecan Syrup at Home

Whenever we’re out for breakfast, I reach for the butter pecan syrup instead of original. I just love it.

It wasn’t until recently that we considered making it at home. I’m so glad that we did. Homemade butter pecan syrup is insanely good — easy, too.

Chop up a handful of pecans and throw them into a small pan over low heat to toast. Once they are fragrant, add some butter and let it sizzle for a minute or so. Pour in some syrup, warm through and you’re done. Gosh it’s good.

Disclosure: We’re sharing this in partnership with Gold Medal Flour. We’re pretty excited about it because it’s been our flour of choice for quite some time (my Mom’s, too). This recipe is part of an ongoing relationship with Gold Medal. Last month, we shared our Simple Apple Tart Recipe.

With a whole cup of pumpkin puree and lots of warm spices, these are perfect for cooler mornings. We love topping these with an easy butter pecan syrup. If you love syrup, you may want to make an extra batch. It goes quickly.

Prepare Pancake Batter: Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and the salt in a medium bowl, set aside. Warm milk until lukewarm, not hot (you should be able to keep your finger submerged for 10 seconds). Whisk milk, butter, egg and the vanilla together until blended.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour milk mixture into the well and stir with a fork until you no longer see large streaks of flour. Stir in pumpkin puree until only small clumps of flour remain. Do not over mix batter.

Note: The batter will be quite thick. If it is unreasonably thick, add 1 to 2 tablespoons more milk to thin it out a little.

Cook Pancakes: Heat a large skillet (or use griddle) over medium heat. The pan is ready if when you splatter a little water onto the pan surface, the water dances around the pan and eventually evaporates.

Lightly brush skillet with melted butter. Spoon a 1/4-cup of the batter onto the skillet and gently spread into a 4-inch circle.

When edges look dry and bubbles start to appear and pop on the top surfaces of the pancake, turn over; about 2 minutes. Once flipped, cook 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked in the middle.

Make Butter Pecan Syrup: Lightly toast pecans in a small pan over medium heat until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add butter and cook until melted and bubbling. Stir in syrup and cook until warmed.

Omg I want to make this they look delicious!! Can I put pumpkin pie spice instead of all the other spices u put? How much would I put if I can? Also can I make this as a waffle too using the same recipie? And can I make it with whole wheat flour and not put sugar to make it healthier and with almond milk? Thanks again realy want to try these soon!! Thanks again!

Sure, substituting pumpkin pie spice would be great. You’ll have to experiment a little based on your own taste to determine amounts. Whole wheat flour and almond milk should work. Reducing the sugar is okay, too.

All comments are moderated before appearing on the site. Thank you so much for waiting. First time commenting? Please review our Comment Policy.

If you are visiting from a mobile or tablet device, our star review system can be tricky (hopefully fixed soon!). If you plan to leave a star review, please write the number of stars (1 to 5) in your comment and either Adam or Joanne will amend your comment with your star review. Thanks!